INTERVIEW-Motor racing-Williams spans the decades as F1 winner

MONACO, May 25 (Reuters) - Apart from the small differenceof a few billion dollars in the bank, Frank Williams has a lotin common with Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

The 70-year-old team founder and principal talks about theday when the lifelong love affair ends and the sport carries onwithout him but it is hard to accept that he will ever willinglylet go.

Billionaire Ecclestone is still calling the shots and doingthe deals at 81 while Williams, quadriplegic and in a wheelchairsince a 1986 car crash, still has that gleam of excitement inhis eyes that galvanised his team in the days of dominance.

"Many men marry and live with their wife for 40 or 50 yearsand shed tears when the wife dies," he told Reuters, sipping teathrough a straw in a private office at the Monaco Grand Prix.

"These love affairs go on for a long time and I just loveFormula One.

"I love my own wife as well, by the way, I've been with herfor yonks, decades and decades. Sometimes she thinks for muchtoo long but she's stuck with me," he grinned, with a wolfishsideways glance.

"I have got 51 percent (of the team) and eventually whenI've decided I'm really in the way and I find it tedious andboring or I can't keep awake...," he allowed his thoughts totail off.

"I don't foresee when. One day of course I'll come to it.Everything's got a finite end on this planet, including mymental health or love affair with Formula One. But there's quitea while yet I hope."

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

Williams, knighted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth for hisservices to sport in 1999, knows all about Formula One'sconstantly spinning wheel of fortune. From the early days whenhe borrowed and cajoled for funds, he has always been a fighter.

He has been through the heights of success, with Williamswinning nine constructors' championships and seven drivers'titles from 1980 to 1997, and the lows of slipping steadily downthe pecking order.

When Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado won in Spain this month, itwas Williams's first victory in nearly eight years - their 114thof all time - and came after their worst season since the 1970s.

In Barcelona, Maldonado scored five times as many points inone afternoon as Williams managed in all of 2011.

'Maldo', as Williams calls him, was a 500-1 bet before thatrace but is now among the favourites for Sunday's glamour grandprix with Williams hoping to chalk up two wins in a row for thefirst time since Ralf Schumacher in 2003.

The timing could not have been better, with Monaco a keyrace for impressing and entertaining sponsors, but Williamsshrugged that off in an unpredictable season where no team ordriver has won more than once so far.

"It (the win) was not by superb management, I can assureyou, but we take it whenever it comes," he said.

"We've only just begun our little journey here, if you like,to see if we can maintain this.

"When you've got a really superb design and engineering teamyou're there up the front nearly all of the time, you veryrarely have an uncompetitive race.

"Yes, we've got ourselves up to the top of the precipicenow, we're just hanging on there; getting our breath back. We'llhave to wait and see. You'll have to come and talk to me againin six months."

Time was when Williams could turn up at Monaco withfrustrated rivals breathing their fumes for most of the weekend.

In 1992, Britain's Nigel Mansell arrived with five wins in arow under his belt - but then lost famously to Brazilian AyrtonSenna in a McLaren despite starting on pole.

From experience, Williams knows that nothing lasts foreverbut that is also a source of hope at a time when others havequicker cars.

"The precipice is probably an unfortunate simile in manyways," he said, reflecting on his choice of words. "We are soundtechnically, financially, organisationally. We have a lot ofexperience, we'll be okay.

"But to maintain winning form...I can assure you that mostteam principals here, all of them with any sense, take nothingfor granted.

"(Red Bull's) Christian Horner - how many races have therebeen so far this year (five) and how many have they won (one)?Are the good days over for them, will they ever come back again?That's what he'll be thinking."

The Spanish win was marred by fire sweeping through theWilliams garage just as the team had gathered for a victoryphotograph and speeches.

The response, with teams from up and down the pitlanehelping to extinguish the flames and then rallying around tooffer equipment for Monaco, was a mark of the respect andaffection Williams commands.

"I've had mail after mail offering us this and that," hesmiled. "It has been unstinting and total. I'm very gratifiedbut it would be the case for every team, I promise you."